Changing Motivation of Second Language Acquisition

Changing motivation of second language acquisition

Graduation Thesis

Presented to

the Faculty of the Department of

English Language and Literature

Notre Dame Seishin University

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirement for the Degree

Bachelor of Arts

By

Ayaka Maeda

2014

Contents

Abstract

Chapter One: Definitions of Motivation and Second Language Motivation

1.1Introduction

1.2What is motivation

1.2.1 Definitions of motivation

1.2.2 Mechanism of motivation

1.3 Aspects of Motivation

1.3.1 Cycles of Motivation

1.3.2 Intrinsic Motivation and Extrinsic Motivation

1.3.3 Aspects of Motivation- Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose

1.3.4 Six Types of Motivation

1.4 Motivation in Second Language Acquisition

1.4.1 Definitions of Motivations in Second Language Acquisition

1.5 Research Questions

1.6 Summary

Chapter Two: The Experiment

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Questionnaire

2.2.1 Introduction

2.2.2 Method

2.3 Result of the questionnaire

2.3.1 Section One

2.3.2 Section Two

2.3.3 Section Three

2.3.4 Section Four

2.4 Summary

Chapter Three: The Discussion

3.1 Introduction

3.2 General Result

3.3 Discussion of Result

3.3.1 The Results of Section One

3.3.2 The Results of Section Two

3.3.3 The Results of Section Three and Four

3.4 Implications

3.5 Limitations of the Questionnaire

3.6 Further Research

3.7 Conclusion

References

Appendix

Abstract

As the world is becoming globalized, we have many chances to use English. Accordingly, we also have chances to take English class. The reason we study Englishdepends on people, and our feeling of studying English changes easily due tosome reasons; for example, test scores and teachers. Our motivations also change. Our behavior is deeply connected to our motivation so our behavior is changed by our motivation.

This thesis focused on changes in our motivation in second language acquisition. We examined the reasons for changes in our motivation

In Chapter One, we discussed the definition of motivation generally and motivation of language acquisition specifically and looked at some quotes about aspects of motivation. At the end of this chapter, we set three research questions. 1) When does motivation in second language learning go up/ down? 2) What is the cause? (Environment ? Ability? Pride? Teacher?) 3) Is it different for people who like English/ don’t like English?

In Chapter Two we saw the results from the questionnaire which was given to 30 subjects in Notre Dame Seishin University. We could categorize them 5 groups by the shape of graph. Almost all of subjects in same group had a similar experience when their motivation changing.

In Chapter Three, we discussed the results of the questionnaire in detail. About changes in motivation, we found that their motivation has relation to not only their experience but also their background.

Chapter 1

1.1Introduction

Today, it is becoming more and more necessary for us to study second language, especially English. In Japan, almost all students take English education in school. According to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, 80% of elementary schools enforce English education. We use all 4 skills; writing, listening, reading, speaking, in class. If we can speak fluently, write what we want to write in English, read English books easily, and can catch what native speakers said easily, we may like English. However, if we can’t use these skills well, we may dislike English. Our actions can be controlled by some reasons and we call this factor “motivation”. There is a strong connection between our behavior and our motivation. Our behavior changes depending on our motivation. The motivation of studying English depends on us and this motivation changes for a variety of reasons. In this chapter we will define motivation and look at various kinds of motivation.

1.2 What is motivation?

1.2.1 Definitions of motivation

In this section we will examine the definitions of motivation by dictionaries.

According to the MBA glossary, motivation is the mental energy to promote our actions. Our everyday actions depend on our motivation. Motivation is formed by environment or intrinsic desire.

1.2.2 Mechanism of motivation

Motivation is produced by two factors (Maslow1943,1954). First, drive. It is in our mind or internal part and lead to our behavior. For example, appetite and desire for sleep. These physiological drives call primary needs, and we all have. When our primary needs are filled, secondary needs will come.

Figure 1 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

He arranges the contents of the desire like a pyramid and when the lower desire is filled, the upper desire will appear. Physiological refers to basic wants. For example, eating and sleeping. If we satisfy the physiological, we want Safety. In this level, we want safe living, a home and so on. The next level is Love and Belonging. In this level we want friendship or family. The next level is Esteem. In this level we want respect from others. The last is Self-actualization. In this level we want morality and creativity.

The second factors are incentive and agent. Agent is the feeling that we want something. Incentive is the stuff that satisfies our wants. In the case of impulse buying, the clothe mannequin is wearing is a motive and it leads to the agent that I want to buy these clothes. Motive and agent interact to control our behavior.

1.3Aspects of motivation

1.3.1Cycles of motivation

First, we start making reasons for taking actions, and these reasons will be energy to sustain our action. Next, we decide what action we take and what goal do we set. After the action if we get good result from our action, we repeat it, but if we can’t get good results, we often fail to repeat it.

1.3.2 Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation

Extrinsic motivation refers to motivation that comes from outside an individual. The motivating factors are external, outside, rewards such as money or grades. These rewards provide satisfaction and pleasure that the task itself may not provide (Carol 2006). In this case, learners study English to get rewards.

We can divide extrinsic motivation into three types by level of autonomy.

External level …At this level, our behavior is controlled by external powers. There is no will. For example: students go to a cramming school because of their parents wish. Introjected level: At this level our behavior is controlled by intrinsic rewards or punishment. For example, we study English because we don’t want to be embarrassed. Identified level…At this level, our behavior is based on extrinsic reasons, but it was decided by our self-determination.

Intrinsic motivation refers to motivation that comes from inside an individual rather than from any external or outside rewards, such as money or grades (Carol 2006). In this case, learners study English for themselves. So that means learners study English because they like it and they study English of their own volition.

1.3.3 Aspects of Motivation - Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose

Daniel Pink (2008) is an American journalist. He says intrinsic motivation is more important than extrinsic motivation. In his opinion, intrinsic motivation is based on these three elements, autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

In business, if-then rewards often destroy creativity. If-then rewards mean if we get a high score in test, then we can get money. Also, the secret to high performance isn’t rewards and punishments, but unseen intrinsic drive. He thought it’s important to consider the drive to do things for their own sake, and the drive to do things because they matter.

We can apply his opinion to studying language. It’s important to study language for our own sake not for other people.

Autonomy. People want the freedom to work how they like, to set their own rules and conditions. They have the need to direct their own lives and their own work. This is why micro-managing employees are a bad idea. Mastery. People want to improve their skills, they want to continuously learn and get better at what they do. I’ve seen this many times as a coach: when a person feels they’re no longer growing, it’s the beginning of the end for their present job.

Purpose. People want to contribute to something bigger than them. They want to feel their life/ work is meaningful and it

1.3.4 Six types of motivation (Ichikawa)

○We can classify 6 types of learner’s motivation. In this model, motivation to learn is classified into 6 types and it is composed of two factors - importance of learning content and substantiveness of reward and punishment (Ichikawa 1995、1996）

Full thought. Learners think learning in itself is interesting.The content of study is more important than the result.

Training thought. They study to train their intellectual skills. They are satisfied with learning that they cannot get a skill.

Practical thought They study to use their knowledge for their future or work. They attach greater importance to content they learn.

Relational thought. They study because they are influenced by someone. They are interested in “with whom?” rather than “learn what?” For example they study something because they like their teacher.

Self-respect thought. They have s strong competitive spirit or pride. They study something to feel a sense of superiority.

Reward thought. They study because they want to get rewards. For example, they study English because if they get a good result, they can get something

1.4 Motivation in second language acquisition

There are many definitions of motivation in second language acquisition and second language learning.

1.4.1 Definitions of motivations in second language acquisition

Ellis (1997) says motivation is the effort learners put into learning an L2 as a result of their desire or need to learn it. He thinks motivation is related to a learner’s attitude and feelings of second language acquisition, and their effort. Motivation is the impetus for learning and it becomes energy for learning.

Gardner (1985) says motivation in language learning is efforts which are going to achieve an aim and the favorable attitude to language learning. According to his study of motivation in second language, his most famous theory is orientation. In his opinion, the definition of orientation is same as the “reason” for learning language but there are two types of orientation. First is integrative orientation. Learners learn target language to know the people who speak target language and culture and to adopt them. Second is instrumental orientation. Learners learn the language to get a good job or to enter the good school.

Crookes and Schmidt (1991) said that the motivation for language learning consists of seven elements. 1. Interest, 2.Relevance, 3.Prediction of success/ failure, 4.Confidence of a reward 5.Willpower, 6. Consistency, 7.height of activity level

1.5 Research question

As Pink mentioned, “The secret to high performance isn't rewards and punishments, but that unseen intrinsic drive”, our behavior is controlled by our motivation. So when our motivation goes up or down, what is the cause?

In Chapter Two, we will examined this question, and in this thesis we will focus on about changing motivation and what causes it. The following are three research questions.

1. When does motivation in second language learning go up/ down?

2. What is the cause? ( Environment ? Ability? Pride? Teacher?)

3. Is it different for people who are good at English / who are not good like English?

1.6 Summary

Motivation is very important for us, and it is related to our behavior. Motivation is roughly divided into two types; intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. As Pink said, it is necessary that intrinsic motivation is based on autonomy, mastery, purpose. Extrinsic motivation like “if you do this, then you can get this” is not so good. This theory applies not only to business but also learning. In Chapter Two, we will find out why or when our motivation goes up or down. In Chapter Three, we will discuss it.

Chapter 2: The Experiment

2.1 Introduction

In Chapter 1 wediscussed motivation, motivation in a second language acquisition, and aspects of motivation. Our motivation is divided into intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and extrinsic motivation can be divided into four types. Our behavior is affected by our motivation, and it changes according to the environment or our state of mind. In this chapter, we will introduce a questionnaire to investigate why we study English and when or why our motivation goes up or down.

2.2 Questionnaire

2.2.1 Introduction

In this chapter we will examine our motivation for English studying and look at thechanges in our motivation over time. When our motivation goes up or goes down and what are the reasons? To discover these, we made a questionnaire. It had about 20 questions total. Some were closed questions and others they had to write their opinion or experiences and had to makea graph.

2.2.2 Method

1) Subject

The subjects were 30 Notre Dame Seishin University students, whowere member of the English department and Education department.

2) Test design

The first section focused on our English level. The second section of questionnaire focused on what kind of motivation the subjects had (intrinsic motivation or extrinsic motivation) and it had 16 questions. The third section was about changes in our motivation and it had 4 open questions. The reason why we chose these questions was to find out their clear reasons why their motivation changes. The fourth section was about changing our motivation and it was a graph. The questionnaire is in the Appendix.

3) Procedure

The questionnairehad 4 sections. Wemade 17 closed questions and 5 open questions and 1graph.We printed it out and distributed to 30 students and non-students, and we collected all of them. To analyze the answers of sections 1and2,we used pie graphs and we calculated the percentages. Section 3 and 4 was free writing and a graph, so we divided answers into some groups and made a list and pie graph.

2.3 Result of the questionnaire

In Section 1 we asked their background. Section2was about intrinsic motivation or extrinsic motivation.We asked them “why do you study English”, to find out about their motivation for studying English. We divided the questions into intrinsic motivation and 4 extrinsic motivations.We categorized the strength of self-determination. The highest one was intrinsic motivation, next was integrated regulation, next was identified regulation, next was Introjected regulation and the last one was external regulation.Question 1 was about intrinsic motivation.Question 2 and 3 was about integrated regulation. We behave because the behavior is consistent with other goals andvalues. For example, we lose weight because it is consistent with other health goals. Questions 6,7,8,13,15 and 16 were about Identified regulation. We behave because of the importance one ascribes to the behavior. For example, we lose weight because a healthy weight is an important goal to accomplish. Question 11 wasIntrojectedregulation. We behave out of a sense of guilt or obligation or a need to prove something. For example, we lose weight because one feels that obesity is a character flaw. Questions 4, 5, 9, 12, 14 were about external regulation. We behave to gain some reward or avoid some negative contingency. For example; lose weight to get a prize in a competition. Section 3 and 4 wasabout changing our motivations. This section was free writing and they made a graph.

2.3.1 Section one

We interviewed subjects about their English levels. There was one question marked 1 to 5. 1 is the highest so it means their English level is very high.5 is the lowest, it means their English level is very low.

Figure 1: The data for “How is your English level?”

No one answered their English level was very high. 5 subjects answered their English level was high. 18 subjects answered their English level was average. 5 subjects answered low and 2 subjects very low. They are all English department students and they studied English in university every day, but there were 7 students who thought their English level is low.

2.3.1 Section 2: Why do you study English?

Figure 2: the data for “Because I like English”

70% of the subjects study English because they like it. 20 of them don’t like English, but they study.

Figure3: the data for“Because I am interested in foreign languages”

70% are interested in foreign languages, so they study English.

Figure 4: the data for “Because I am interested in foreign culture”

67% of them study English because they are interested in foreign culture.

Figure5: the data for “To grant my dream or desire”

56% of them study English because they want to grant their dream or desire.

Figure 6: the data for “Because of my parents wish”

13% study English because of their parents wish.

Figure7: the data for “To improve our English ability”

73% of them study English to improve their English ability.

Figure 8: “To speak English fluently”

77% of them study English to speak English fluently.

Figure9: The data for “To make foreign friends”

50% of them study English to make foreign friends.

Figure10: The data for “To get a good job”

30% of them study English to get a good job.

Figure11: The data for “To enter a good school”

20% of them study English to enter a good school.

Figure12: The data for “Because I am a member of the English department”

49% of them study English because they are a member of the English department.

Figure13: The data for “To get a high score on tests”

33% of them study English to get a high score on tests.

Figure14: The data for “To get a high score on tests ”